CDC highlights blood infection decline

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Central line blood infections decreased rapidly between 2011 and 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Its newly released update on healthcare-associated infections (HAI) details progress toward the ultimate goal of eliminating HAIs.

According to the update, progress has been made in the effort to eliminate infections that commonly threaten hospital patients, including a 46 percent decrease in central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) between 2008 and 2013. However, it says additional work is needed to continue to improve patient safety.

CDC’s Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) progress report is a snapshot of how each state and the country are doing in eliminating six infection types that hospitals are required to report to CDC.

Since 2009, there has been a 6 percent increase in catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) although initial data from 2014 seems to indicate that these infections have started to decrease.

“Hospitals have made real progress to reduce some types of healthcare-associated infections - it can be done,” said CDC director Tom Frieden. “The key is for every hospital to have rigorous infection control programs to protect patients and healthcare workers, and for health care facilities and others to work together to reduce the many types of infections that haven’t decreased enough.”